Product details

Blade Glimpse XL Quadcopter Drone with 720p Camera

• Enjoy energetic, fun flying with excellent video capabilities for up to 15 minutes at a time• Without a permit, the legal range for a drone to fly is below 120m and always in the line of sight from the operator• Check out The Drone Code or The IAA (ROI) for everything you need to be aware of when flying your drone• Fantastic quality EFC-721 720p HD camera for superior video footage, with up to 32GB of storage• Mast-mounted GPS antenna for enhanced GPS accuracy and performance• Advanced SAFE® (Sensor Assisted Flight Envelope) technology• Requires 5GHz Wi-Fi to be supported on smart phone or tablet• Smart flight mode, with GPS and altitude holding capabilities and stick relative controls• AP (Aerial Photography) mode for quicker response times and faster panning• Return home function forces aircraft to return to take-off point and lands autonomously• 3S 3000mAh 11.1V 30C lithium-polymer battery • Includes battery charger and AC adapter• Also includes Spektrum™ DX4 transmitter • Requires AA batteries (included)Is this the right drone for me?This Glimpse XL drone is a fantastic choice for any budding drone enthusiast or experienced user alike. With a plethora of excellent features and design elements, the Glimpse XL is certainly the next big thing.

SAFE (Sensor Assisted Flight Envelope) technology makes this drone incredibly simple to use, in fact so easy that even if this is your first time flying a quadcopter, you’ll look like you’ve been at it for years. Two flight modes are included, smart mode and aerial photography mode.

Both flight modes are self-levelling, and utilise GPS and altitude sensors to accurately hold a stable position while hovering. This drone must be set up outside to get a GPS lock.

Aerial photography mode is for more experienced pilots, however with time anyone can use this mode with ease. Response from stick inputs remains smooth and predictable to ensure that tracking and panning shots look fantastic.

However if you’re new to quadcopters, then you have nothing to worry about, as smart mode caters to your needs excellently.

How easy is it to fly?Smart mode is mainly aimed towards beginners and has a number of features designed to aid learners with their drone flying.

One feature is that of stick relativity. What this means is that regardless of which way the drone is facing, whichever direction the sticks are pushed in – the drone will move. This gets rid of a common problem that new flyers face, which is determining which way the drone is facing.

The other main feature is the SAFE circle barrier, which prevents the pilot from flying too close to his or herself and people near you. For new flyers who may still be getting their bearings in regards to drone control, this is a fantastic safety feature.

What other features should I know about?Another great feature is the return home function. At the push of a button, the quadcopter will automatically fly back to its take-off location, and land by itself in front of you.

The included camera is able to record HD 720p footage and is capable of 1.3MP still images. It has a microSD card slot which can support up to 32GB of footage, as well as being extremely lightweight so that it doesn’t impede flying at all.

Are spare parts available for this Drone?Spare blades, Order Code: A38UFSpare Battery, Order Code: A29TQ

Safe flying is your responsibilityWe fully encourage safe and responsible flying. We recommend you read the CAA’s/IAA’s website and The Drone Code for full information on safe and responsible flying. The CAA (UK)The IAA (ROI) The Drone Code

Please see the Downloads tab for information regarding responsible flying and aviation law.

Specifications

Weight (including battery and propellers)

955 g

Diagonal size (including propellers)

465 mm

Max ascent speed

8

Max descent speed

5

Hover accuracy

Vertical: ± 10 cm

Horizontal: ± 1 m

Max speed

10 m/s

Max altitude above sea level

up to 200 Metres

Operating temperature

0°C to 40°C

GPS mode

GPS/GLONASS

Camera

Sensor

CMOS 1/2.7 inch

Effective pixels

1.3MP

Lens

F/2.8

ISO range

Fixed

Shutter speed

Fixed

Image max size

1280 x 1024

Still photography modes

Single shot

Auto exposure bracketing

No

Bracketed frames at 0.7EV bias

No

Time-lapse

No

Video recording modes

UHD

N/A

FHD

N/A

HD

1280 x 1024

Supported SD card types

microSD

Max capacity

32GB

Max bitrate of video storage

60 Mbps

Supported file formats

Fat32

Photo

JPEG

Video

AVI

Battery

Capacity

3000 mAh

Voltage

11.1 V

Battery type

LiPo 3S

Max flight time

Approximately 15 minutes

Package contents

Blade Glimpse XL Drone with 720p HD camera

Transmitter

Battery charger

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Cseejay from
Great drone.I purchased this drone after being a radio control aeroplane flyer for many years. I tried to move on to helicopters but found them very hard to fly and not stable even with the expensive ones. I spent a lot of money having to repair them.This drone flies straight from the box once you have charged up the batteries and with the smart mode is ideal for newbies and experts as well. I am not sure if learning to fly with the smart mode is a good move as for me i am used to the right and left being reversed when the drone is facing me. The return home function works very well and i am totally pleased with the performance of the drone. I would highly recommend this drone.

Date published: 2016-08-06

Rated 5 out of
5 by
drone flyer from
blade glimpses xlThis is a very very good drone i have 6 or 7 drones from horizon and others, but this is a piece of cakes to fly it fast looks good responds very well ,the manual is good but not good enough . if your a first time drone flyer this is a good one for you but read and look at all the reviews and videos study them ask questions before buying any drone or any rc model, use a very large open field away from houses or roads take your time and stop when you had enough, this drone is for a a beginner just fallow all the safety rules and you will be ok this drone will help you with its safety features so use them and enjoy your glimpse xl.

Date published: 2016-06-28

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Dave from
Good Value Fun DroneI bought this drone for Christmas 2015. I tried it out on a calm January day in Pembrokeshire. The instructions were simple to follow. I used the SMART mode because I am a beginner. It flew beautifully and the controls were easy to use. The Glimpse app worked well on my android phone and I took some video. I was able to easily download the video to my laptop using the lead provided. For an amateur like me the Glimpse XL is perfect. Some people may want a more advanced camera if they are keen photographers but for a beginner like me it was fine.

Date published: 2016-01-16

Rated 4 out of
5 by
Edmund from
Has promiseI bought this model at the weekend, but only today got to seriously try it out.
The manual is not very informative and unclear, after finally working out how to calibrate the compass & accelerometer i took advantage of an empty car park, first hovering a few feet off the ground, then getting used to the controls, Also testing the 'return home' system, and yes, it works well.
I followed this by gaining height, at the same time the wind started to increase, however the GPS held it in place and it was fairly stable.
Finally i took it back into the large garden I have at work and flew it down a footpath, under some trees and up to and above the house.
I'm impressed so far, though downloading from the sd card is proving difficult at this time, and the manual doesn't give information on adusting the angle of the camera or what all of the switches do. hence my 4 star rating

Date published: 2016-05-05

Rated 5 out of
5 by
K Scott from
Great Video QualityI bought this item for Christmas. It is already built needing only the camera attaching. The Drone is very easy to fly and comes with good instructions and has a built in safety programme as well as a return to home function so you wont loose this drone. The video is HD quality, The drone has built in GPS so it always level making it even easier to fly and take awesome videos.

Date published: 2015-12-28

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Smiffu216 from
Brilliant valueVery easy to operate straight out of the box. First flight was in the middle of a football pitch just incase, but after a short time feel confident to fly around my house (outside). I haven't pushed the battery yet and have still had a good flight time. Camera is ok, but i want a better one and want to upgrade to a 3d gimbal if i can. Waiting to find out if this is a possibility. Great value for the price, robust, easy to fly, like it a lot.

Date published: 2015-12-27

Rated 4 out of
5 by
Thegh0sty from
Great beginners drone, well designed too BUT!!!!Hi all bought this drone a week ago after careful consideration on my budget, am new to this hobbie and have only had small inexpensive drones before and on seeing this one I thought I would go for it, great features and well built on initial unpacking didn't look cheap and tacky either,and then it got a bit confusing!! As it seems this product is in the middle of two other products which are still being supported, ie the blade glimpse nano and the blade qx3 but the blade glimpse XLto my horror dosent seem to be supported and horizon hobbies dosent even acknowledge it to be one of there products!! So I did some digging and research and found out that the fpv view is very misleading as it says add a smart device and go...not the case at all only certain devices will work with the free glimpse app which is a 5GHz wifi connection here are a few compatible devices I have found there will be more but the Samsung galaxy s3 the HTC one x any iPhone 5c and above to name a few so please Google your device is 5GHz compatible if you wish to use fpv view as it dosent say this anywhere I do hope Maplins will update there descriptions and requirements for this product to be fair to potential buyers.....and lastly there is an update on both Maplins and horizon websites that says will fix this issue but don't get confused and try it as this is for the smaller glimpse nano model which is still being supported, but anyhow hope this helps and as far as the glimpse XL goes I love it now everything is working great the cam isn't bad either overall a excellent drone and worth the dough for a beginner like me!!!!

Date published: 2016-04-27

Rated 3 out of
5 by
DroneFlight from
Not exactly what you would hope for.I purchased this drone in-store and spoke to a member of staff who like most others checked online for information about this drone. Like most the description is very misleading and doesn't actually quote any real figures in terms of actual flight distance and height. Horizon Hobby's also don't list this drone on their website so it can be very frustrating to find out more information or download an actual instruction manual for it.
Good Points:
1. Very easy to fly and GPS hold is very good
2. Just pop in batteries and 99.8% of the time your flying.
Bad Points:
1. Quoted flight time is 15mins, this is actually more like 10mins
2. There is no audio battery low alarm, and if drone is facing away from you the warning light can be difficult to see.
3. Once battery is low, drone will return to ground by itself but the time between seeing the light flashing and decent is also very small.
4. Body is ABS plastic and can crack very easy.
5. GPS Mast is very poorly made and brittle, a heart attack can ensue if your transporting it in a vehicle even with mast down.
6. Quoted 720p camera is 720p in size but is not of great quality at all.
7. Could have done with a better Camera mount pad/gimble.
8. Instructions provided for calibration are incorrect and tried to calibrate this time and time again with method specified. After a lot of searching managed to do this via provided USB to PCB interface via software (ALSO NOT PROVIDED).
9. There is little difference between Smart Mode and AP mode.
10. Flight Limits
Max Height is about 50 meters and max range is about 250m/300m. This is not quoted on Maplins website but ideally it could be.
11. I am unsure if this is common for most drones but if you find yourself moving with the controls the Drone will not dismiss previous GeoFencing location thus meaning you have to land and power down, re power up and take off again.
I have to say I was a little disappointed with this for the money and given that a DJI Phantom 2 without Gimble is £50 more I would opt for that over this drone.

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